Date and time notation in New Zealand

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Date and time notation in New Zealand [ refresh ]
Full date7 February 2022
All-numeric date2022-02-07
07/02/2022
Time17:25
5:25 pm

Date and time notation in New Zealand most commonly records the date using the day-month-year format (7 February 2022), while the ISO 8601 format (2022-02-07) is increasingly used for all-numeric dates, such as date of birth. [1] The time can be written using either the 12-hour clock (5:25 pm) or the 24-hour clock (17:25).

Contents

Date

New Zealanders typically write the date with the day leading, as in the United Kingdom and Australia:

The month–day–year order (February 7, 2022) is sometimes used, usually informally in the mastheads of magazines, schools, newspapers, [2] advertisements, video games, news, and TV shows. However, similar to the UK, the MDY in numeric-only form (02/07/2022) is never used as it can be easily confused for the DMY format.

Weeks are most identified by the last day of the week, either the Friday in business (e.g., "week ending 19/1") or the Sunday in other use (e.g., "week ending 21/1").

Time

The New Zealand Government readability guidelines recommend writing showing the time in a 12-hour format, although the 24-hour clock (17:25) is can be used in technical fields such as military, aviation, computing, navigation, transportation and the sciences. The before noon/after noon qualifier is usually written as "am" or "pm". A colon is the preferred time separator. New Zealanders are also recommended to use "midnight" instead of "00:00" in writing. UTC time is used in some cases by the New Zealand land service information data service. [3]

Related Research Articles

A calendar date is a reference to a particular day represented within a calendar system. The calendar date allows the specific day to be identified. The number of days between two dates may be calculated. For example, "25 February 2022" is ten days after "15 February 2022". The date of a particular event depends on the observed time zone. For example, the air attack on Pearl Harbor that began at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time on 7 December 1941 took place at 3:18 a.m. Japan Standard Time, 8 December in Japan.

ISO 8601 is an international standard covering the worldwide exchange and communication of date- and time-related data. It is maintained by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was first published in 1988, with updates in 1991, 2000, 2004, and 2019. The standard aims to provide a well-defined, unambiguous method of representing calendar dates and times in worldwide communications, especially to avoid misinterpreting numeric dates and times when such data is transferred between countries with different conventions for writing numeric dates and times.

Time zone Area that observes a uniform standard time

A time zone is an area that observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it is convenient for areas in frequent communication to keep the same time.

The 12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods: a.m. and p.m.. Each period consists of 12 hours numbered: 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

The 24-hour clock, popularly referred to in the United States and some other countries as militarytime, is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours passed since midnight, from 0(:01) to 23(:59). This system, as opposed to the 12-hour clock, is the most commonly used time notation in the world today, and is used by the international standard ISO 8601.

Midnight Transition time from one day to the next

Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours.

Time in New Zealand is divided by law into two standard time zones. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) / military M (Mike), while the outlying Chatham Islands use Chatham Standard Time (CHAST), 12 hours 45 minutes in advance of UTC / military M^ (Mike-Three).

Different conventions exist around the world for date and time representation, both written and spoken.

In computer science, time formatting and storage bugs are a class of software bugs that may cause time and date calculation or display to be improperly handled. These are most commonly manifestations of arithmetic overflow, but can also be the result of other issues. The most well-known consequence of bugs of this type is the Y2K problem, but many other milestone dates or times exist that have caused or will cause problems depending on various programming deficiencies.

Date and time notation in Canada combines conventions from the United Kingdom, conventions from the United States, and conventions from France, often creating confusion. The Government of Canada specifies the ISO 8601 format for all-numeric dates. It recommends writing the time using the 24-hour clock (03:16) for maximum clarity in both Canadian English and Canadian French, but also allows the 12-hour clock (3:16 a.m.) in English.

Date and time notation in the United States differs from that used in nearly all other countries. It is inherited from one historical branch of conventions from the United Kingdom. American styles of notation have also influenced customs of date notation in Canada, creating confusion in international commerce.

In Finland, the usual way of writing dates in normal text is with the months spelled out. The format varies according to the language used. In Finnish, a full stop is placed after the day to indicate an ordinal: “31. toukokuuta 2002”; furthermore, the month is in the partitive case, always marked by -ta. The month can also be written first, now in genitive case : “toukokuun 31. pnä 2002”. In Swedish, the full stop is not used and the month is in nominative : “den 31 maj 2002”.

In Poland, the official system for representing dates and times follows the international ISO 8601 standard. However, in less official use, other conventions prevail, such as the day-month-year order and several Polish language abbreviations.

Date and time notation in the United Kingdom records the date using the day–month–year format. The ISO 8601 format (2022-02-06) is increasingly used for all-numeric dates. The time can be written using either the 24-hour clock (14:25) or 12-hour clock.

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) adopted ISO 8601 with EN 28601, now EN ISO 8601. As a European Norm, CEN and CENELEC member states are obligated to adopt the standard as national standard without alterations as well.

Date and time notation in South Africa describes methods of expressing date and time used South Africa.

Date and time notation in Australia most commonly records the date using the day-month-year format, while the ISO 8601 format (2022-02-02) is increasingly used for all-numeric dates. The time can be written using either the 12-hour clock or the 24-hour clock (13:32).

Date and time notation in Italy records the date using the day–month–year format. The time is written using the 24-hour clock (04:23); in spoken language and informal contexts the 12-hour clock is more commonly adopted, but without using "a.m." or "p.m." suffixes (4:23).

References

  1. ↑ "Date of birth data content requirement". data.gov.nz. 2 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021.
  2. ↑ "Latest breaking news NZ". stuff.co.nz. 2 September 2021. Archived from the original on 28 February 2001.
  3. ↑ "Changeset dates and timestamps". Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand. 2 September 2021. Archived from the original on 10 February 2016.


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